Sturgeon spawning run update - May 2, 2018
Attention Winnebago System Sturgeon Enthusiasts:
Our fisheries crew was out tagging sturgeon on the Wolf River between New London and Leeman today, along with on the Embarrass River in New London. One crew worked the New London area and handled 49 fish at Pfeifer Park (Embarrass River) and 19 at the Sturgeon Trail. The second crew started their morning by handling 54 fish at Bamboo Bend (Shiocton) before heading upstream to a site on private property in Leeman where an additional 18 fish were handled.
Spawning appears to be all but done at the Sturgeon Trail as catch has really tailed off the last two days. Spawning activity also seems to have decreased in intensity at Bamboo Bend relative to yesterday. We did check the Shawano Dam for spawning activity this afternoon. Fish were sparsely observed, but present, on both the power house and Sturgeon Park sides of the river, but no spawning was observed. More fish will be starting to show up at this location over the next 1-2 days, but I don’t anticipate spawning getting underway in Shawano until Friday and likely going into the weekend. For tomorrow, there should still be some fish activity at Bamboo Bend in Shiocton and some early cruising activity at Shawano.
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Ryan Koenigs
Senior Fisheries Biologist / Winnebago System Sturgeon Biologist
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources